Pyotr Ilyich Tchaïkovsky
= Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky = Portrait of Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky by Nikolai Kuznetsov Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (/ˈpjoʊtər ɪˈljɪtʃ tʃaɪˈkɒfski/;1 Russian: Пётр Ильи́ч Чайко́вский;1 tr. Pyotr Il'yich Chaykovskiy; 25 April/7 May 1840 – 25 October/6 November 1893),2 often anglicized as Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky, was a Russian composer of the late-Romantic period, some of whose works are among the most popular music in the classical repertoire. He was the first Russian composer whose music made a lasting impression internationally, bolstered by his appearances as a guest conductor in Europe and the United States. Tchaikovsky was honored in 1884, by Emperor Alexander III, and awarded a lifetime pension. Although musically precocious, Tchaikovsky was educated for a career as a civil servant. There was scant opportunity for a musical career in Russia at that time and no system of public music education. When an opportunity for such an education arose, he entered the nascent Saint Petersburg Conservatory, from which he graduated in 1865. The formal Western-oriented teaching he received there set him apart from composers of the contemporary nationalist movement embodied by the Russian composers of The Five, with whom his professional relationship was mixed. Tchaikovsky's training set him on a path to reconcile what he had learned with the native musical practices to which he had been exposed from childhood. From this reconciliation, he forged a personal but unmistakably Russian style—a task that did not prove easy. The principles that governed melody, harmony and other fundamentals of Russian music ran completely counter to those that governed Western European music; this seemed to defeat the potential for using Russian music in large-scale Western composition or for forming a composite style, and it caused personal antipathies that dented Tchaikovsky's self-confidence. Russian culture exhibited a split personality, with its native and adopted elements having drifted apart increasingly since the time of Peter the Great. This resulted in uncertainty among the intelligentsia about the country's national identity—an ambiguity mirrored in Tchaikovsky's career. Despite his many popular successes, Tchaikovsky's life was punctuated by personal crises and depression. Contributory factors included his early separation from his mother for boarding school followed by his mother's early death, the death of his close friend and colleague Nikolai Rubinstein, and the collapse of the one enduring relationship of his adult life, which was his 13-year association with the wealthy widow Nadezhda von Meck. His homosexuality, which he kept private, has traditionally also been considered a major factor, though some musicologists now downplay its importance. Tchaikovsky's sudden death at the age of 53 is generally ascribed to cholera; there is an ongoing debate as to whether cholera was indeed the cause of death, or if it was accidental or self-inflicted. While his music has remained popular among audiences, critical opinions were initially mixed. Some Russians did not feel it was sufficiently representative of native musical values and expressed suspicion that Europeans accepted the music for its Western elements. In an apparent reinforcement of the latter claim, some Europeans lauded Tchaikovsky for offering music more substantive than base exoticism, and said he transcended stereotypes of Russian classical music. Others dismissed Tchaikovsky's music as "lacking in elevated thought," according to longtime New York Times music critic Harold C. Schonberg, and derided its formal workings as deficient because they did not stringently follow Western principles. Contents hide * 1Life ** 1.1Childhood ** 1.2Civil service; pursuing music *** 1.2.1Relationship with The Five *** 1.2.2Growing fame; budding opera composer ** 1.3Emotional life ** 1.4Years of wandering ** 1.5Return to Russia ** 1.6Belyayev circle and growing reputation ** 1.7Death * 2Music ** 2.1Creative range ** 2.2Tchaikovsky and Ukraine ** 2.3Compositional style *** 2.3.1Melody *** 2.3.2Harmony *** 2.3.3Rhythm *** 2.3.4Structure *** 2.3.5Repetition *** 2.3.6Orchestration *** 2.3.7Pastiche (Passé-ism) ** 2.4Antecedents and influences ** 2.5Aesthetic impact ** 2.6Reception *** 2.6.1Dedicatees and collaborators *** 2.6.2Critics *** 2.6.3Public ** 2.7Legacy * 3Tchaikovsky's voice * 4Notes * 5References * 6Sources * 7External links ** 7.1Public domain sheet music Life Childhood The Tchaikovsky family in 1848. Left to right: Pyotr, Alexandra Andreyevna (mother), Alexandra (sister), Zinaida, Nikolai, Ippolit, Ilya Petrovich (father) Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky was born in Votkinsk, a small town in Vyatka Governorate (present-day Udmurtia) in the Russian Empire, into a family with a long line of military service. His father, Ilya Petrovich Tchaikovsky, had served as a lieutenant colonel and engineer in the Department of Mines,2 and would manage the Kamsko-Votkinsk Ironworks. His grandfather, Pyotr Fedorovich Tchaikovsky (né Petro Fedorovych Chaika), served first as a physician's assistant in the army and later as city governor of Glazov in Viatka. His great-grandfather, a Ukrainian Cossack named Fyodor Chaika (accordingly, 'Tchaikovsky' is the derivative of the Ukrainian family name 'Chaika' - 'seagull' in Ukrainian), distinguished himself under Peter the Great at the Battle of Poltava in 1709.34 Tchaikovsky's mother, Alexandra Andreyevna (née d'Assier), was the second of Ilya's three wives, 18 years her husband's junior and French on her father's side.5 Both Ilya and Alexandra were trained in the arts, including music—a necessity as a posting to a remote area of Russia also meant a need for entertainment, whether in private or at social gatherings.6 Of Tchaikovsky's six siblings,3 he was close to his sister Alexandra and twin brothers Anatoly and Modest. Alexandra's marriage to Lev Davydov7 would produce seven children and lend Tchaikovsky the only real family life he would know as an adult,8 especially during his years of wandering.8 One of those children, Vladimir Davydov, whom the composer would nickname 'Bob', would become very close to him.9 In 1844, the family hired Fanny Dürbach, a 22-year-old French governess.10 Four-and-a-half-year-old Tchaikovsky was initially thought too young to study alongside his older brother Nikolai and a niece of the family. His insistence convinced Dürbach otherwise.11 By the age of six, he had become fluent in French and German.6 Tchaikovsky also became attached to the young woman; her affection for him was reportedly a counter to his mother's coldness and emotional distance from him,12though others assert that the mother doted on her son.13 Dürbach saved much of Tchaikovsky's work from this period, which includes his earliest known compositions, and became a source of several childhood anecdotes.14 Tchaikovsky began piano lessons at age five. Precocious, within three years he had become as adept at reading sheet music as his teacher. His parents, initially supportive, hired a tutor, bought an orchestrion (a form of barrel organ that could imitate elaborate orchestral effects), and encouraged his piano study for both aesthetic and practical reasons. However, they decided in 1850 to send Tchaikovsky to the Imperial School of Jurisprudence in Saint Petersburg. They had both graduated from institutes in Saint Petersburg and the School of Jurisprudence, which mainly served the lesser nobility, would prepare Tchaikovsky for a career as a civil servant.15Regardless of talent, the only musical careers available in Russia at that time – except for the affluent aristocracy – were as a teacher in an academy or as an instrumentalist in one of the Imperial Theaters. Both were considered on the lowest rung of the social ladder, with individuals in them enjoying no more rights than peasants.16 His father's income was also growing increasingly uncertain, so both parents may have wanted Tchaikovsky to become independent as soon as possible.17 As the minimum age for acceptance was 12 and Tchaikovsky was only 10 at the time, he was required to spend two years boarding at the Imperial School of Jurisprudence's preparatory school, 1,300 kilometres (800 mi) from his family.18 Once those two years had passed, Tchaikovsky transferred to the Imperial School of Jurisprudence to begin a seven-year course of studies.19 Modern view of the Imperial School of Jurisprudence Tchaikovsky's early separation from his mother caused an emotional trauma that lasted the rest of his life and was intensified by her death from cholera in 1854, when he was fourteen.204 Her loss also prompted Tchaikovsky to make his first serious attempt at composition, a waltz in her memory. Tchaikovsky's father, who had also contracted cholera but recovered fully, sent him back to school immediately in the hope that classwork would occupy the boy's mind.21 Isolated, Tchaikovsky compensated with friendships with fellow students that became lifelong; these included Aleksey Apukhtin and Vladimir Gerard.22 Music, while not an official priority at school, also bridged the gap between Tchaikovsky and his peers. They regularly attended the opera23 and Tchaikovsky would improvise at the school's harmonium on themes he and his friends had sung during choir practice. "We were amused," Vladimir Gerard later remembered, "but not imbued with any expectations of his future glory."24Tchaikovsky also continued his piano studies through Franz Becker, an instrument manufacturer who made occasional visits to the school; however, the results, according to musicologist David Brown, were "negligible".25 In 1855, Tchaikovsky's father funded private lessons with Rudolph Kündinger and questioned him about a musical career for his son. While impressed with the boy's talent, Kündinger said he saw nothing to suggest a future composer or performer.26 He later admitted that his assessment was also based on his own negative experiences as a musician in Russia and his unwillingness for Tchaikovsky to be treated likewise.27 Tchaikovsky was told to finish his course and then try for a post in the Ministry of Justice.28 Civil service; pursuing music Tchaikovsky as a student at the conservatory. Photo, 1863 On 10 June 1859, the 19-year-old Tchaikovsky graduated as a titular counselor, a low rung on the civil service ladder. Appointed to the Ministry of Justice, he became a junior assistant within six months and a senior assistant two months after that. He remained a senior assistant for the rest of his three-year civil service career.29 Meanwhile, the Russian Musical Society (RMS) was founded in 1859 by the Grand Duchess Elena Pavlovna (a German-born aunt of Tsar Alexander II) and her protégé, pianist and composer Anton Rubinstein. Previous tsars and the aristocracy had focused almost exclusively on importing European talent.30 The aim of the RMS was to fulfill Alexander II's wish to foster native talent.31 It hosted a regular season of public concerts (previously held only during the six weeks of Lent when the Imperial Theaters were closed)32 and provided basic professional training in music.33 In 1861, Tchaikovsky attended RMS classes in music theory taught by Nikolai Zaremba at the Mikhailovsky Palace (now the Russian Museum).34 These classes were a precursor to the Saint Petersburg Conservatory, which opened in 1862. Tchaikovsky enrolled at the Conservatory as part of its premiere class. He studied harmony and counterpoint with Zaremba and instrumentation and composition with Rubinstein.35 The Conservatory benefited Tchaikovsky in two ways. It transformed him into a musical professional, with tools to help him thrive as a composer, and the in-depth exposure to European principles and musical forms gave him a sense that his art was not exclusively Russian or Western.36 This mindset became important in Tchaikovsky's reconciliation of Russian and European influences in his compositional style. He believed and attempted to show that both these aspects were "intertwined and mutually dependent".37 His efforts became both an inspiration and a starting point for other Russian composers to build their own individual styles.38 Anton (right) and Nikolai Rubinstein Rubinstein was impressed by Tchaikovsky's musical talent on the whole and cited him as "a composer of genius" in his autobiography39 He was less pleased with the more progressive tendencies of some of Tchaikovsky's student work.40 Nor did he change his opinion as Tchaikovsky's reputation grew.56 He and Zaremba clashed with Tchaikovsky when he submitted his First Symphony for performance by the RMS in Saint Petersburg. Rubinstein and Zaremba refused to consider the work unless substantial changes were made. Tchaikovsky complied but they still refused to perform the symphony.41 Tchaikovsky, distressed that he had been treated as though he were still their student, withdrew the symphony. It was given its first complete performance, minus the changes Rubinstein and Zaremba had requested, in Moscow in February 1868.42 Once Tchaikovsky graduated in 1865, Rubinstein's brother Nikolai offered him the post of Professor of Music Theory at the soon-to-open Moscow Conservatory. While the salary for his professorship was only 50 rubles a month, the offer itself boosted Tchaikovsky's morale and he accepted the post eagerly. He was further heartened by news of the first public performance of one of his works, his Characteristic Dances, conducted by Johann Strauss II at a concert in Pavlovsk Park on 11 September 1865 (Tchaikovsky later included this work, re-titled, Dances of the Hay Maidens, in his opera The Voyevoda).43 From 1867 to 1878, Tchaikovsky combined his professorial duties with music criticism while continuing to compose.44 This exposed him to a range of contemporary music and afforded him the opportunity to travel abroad.45 In his reviews, he praised Beethoven, considered Brahms overrated and, despite his admiration, took Schumann to task for poor orchestration.467 He appreciated the staging of Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen at its inaugural performance in Bayreuth, Germany, but not the music, calling Das Rheingold "unlikely nonsense, through which, from time to time, sparkle unusually beautiful and astonishing details."47 A recurring theme he addressed was the poor state of Russian opera.48 Relationship with The Five See also: Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky and The Five The young Mily Balakirev In 1856, while Tchaikovsky was still at the School of Jurisprudence and Anton Rubinstein lobbied aristocrats to form the RMS, critic Vladimir Stasov and an 18-year-old pianist, Mily Balakirev, met and agreed upon a nationalist agenda for Russian music, one that would take the operas of Mikhail Glinka as a model and incorporate elements from folk music, reject traditional Western practices and use exotic harmonic devices such as the whole tone and octatonic scales.49 They saw Western-style conservatories as unnecessary and antipathetic to fostering native talent.50 Eventually, Balakirev, César Cui, Modest Mussorgsky, Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov and Alexander Borodin became known as the moguchaya kuchka, translated into English as the Mighty Handful or The Five.51 Rubinstein criticized their emphasis on amateur efforts in musical composition; Balakirev and later Mussorgsky attacked Rubinstein for his musical conservatism and his belief in professional music training.52 Tchaikovsky and his fellow conservatory students were caught in the middle.53 While ambivalent about much of The Five's music, Tchaikovsky remained on friendly terms with most of its members.54 In 1869, he and Balakirev worked together on what became Tchaikovsky's first recognized masterpiece, the fantasy-overture Romeo and Juliet, a work which The Five wholeheartedly embraced.55 The group also welcomed his Second Symphony, subtitled the Little Russian.56Despite their support, Tchaikovsky made considerable efforts to ensure his musical independence from the group as well as from the conservative faction at the Saint Petersburg Conservatory.57 Growing fame; budding opera composer The infrequency of Tchaikovsky's musical successes, won with tremendous effort, exacerbated his lifelong sensitivity to criticism. Nikolai Rubinstein's private fits of rage critiquing his music, most famously attacking the First Piano Concerto, did not help matters.58 His popularity grew, however, as several first-rate artists became willing to perform his compositions. Hans von Bülow premiered the First Piano Concerto and championed other Tchaikovsky works both as pianist and conductor.59 Other artists included Adele Aus der Ohe, Max Erdmannsdörfer, Eduard Nápravník and Sergei Taneyev. The conductor Hans von Bülow Another factor that helped Tchaikovsky's music become popular was a shift in attitude among Russian audiences. Whereas they had previously been satisfied with flashy virtuoso performances of technically demanding but musically lightweight compositions, they gradually began listening with increasing appreciation of the music itself. Tchaikovsky's works were performed frequently, with few delays between their composition and first performances; the publication from 1867 onward of his songs and great piano music for the home market also helped boost the composer's popularity.60 During the late 1860s, Tchaikovsky began to compose operas. His first, The Voyevoda, based on a play by Alexander Ostrovsky, premiered in 1869. The composer became dissatisfied with it, however, and, having re-used parts of it in later works, destroyed the manuscript. Undina followed in 1870. Only excerpts were performed and it, too, was destroyed.61 Between these projects, Tchaikovsky started to compose an opera called Mandragora, to a libretto by Sergei Rachinskii; the only music he completed was a short chorus of Flowers and Insects.62 The first Tchaikovsky opera to survive intact, The Oprichnik, premiered in 1874. During its composition, he lost Ostrovsky's part-finished libretto. Tchaikovsky, too embarrassed to ask for another copy, decided to write the libretto himself, modelling his dramatic technique on that of Eugène Scribe. Cui wrote a "characteristically savage press attack" on the opera. Mussorgsky, writing to Vladimir Stasov, disapproved of the opera as pandering to the public. Nevertheless, The Oprichnik continues to be performed from time to time in Russia.61 The last of the early operas, Vakula the Smith (Op.14), was composed in the second half of 1874. The libretto, based on Gogol's Christmas Eve, was to have been set to music by Alexander Serov. With Serov's death, the libretto was opened to a competition with a guarantee that the winning entry would be premiered by the Imperial Mariinsky Theatre. Tchaikovsky was declared the winner, but at the 1876 premiere the opera enjoyed only a lukewarm reception.63 After Tchaikovsky's death, Rimsky-Korsakov wrote an opera based on the same story, Christmas Eve.64 Other works of this period include the Variations on a Rococo Theme for cello and orchestra, the Second and Fourth Symphonies, the ballet Swan Lake, and the opera Eugene Onegin. Emotional life See also: LGBT history in Russia, Désirée Artôt, Antonina Miliukova, and Nadezhda von Meck Tchaikovsky and Antonina on their honeymoon, 1877 Discussion of Tchaikovsky's personal life, especially his sexuality, has perhaps been the most extensive of any composer in the 19th century and certainly of any Russian composer of his time.65 It has also at times caused considerable confusion, from Soviet efforts to expunge all references to same-sex attraction and portray him as a heterosexual, to efforts at armchair analysis by Western biographers.66 Biographers have generally agreed that Tchaikovsky was homosexual.67 He sought the company of other men in his circle for extended periods, "associating openly and establishing professional connections with them." 58 However, the degree to which the composer might have felt comfortable with his sexual nature has remained open to debate. It is still unknown whether Tchaikovsky, according to musicologist and biographer David Brown, "felt tainted within himself, defiled by something from which he finally realized he could never escape"68 or whether, according to Alexander Poznansky, he experienced "no unbearable guilt" over his sexual nature58 and "eventually came to see his sexual peculiarities as an insurmountable and even natural part of his personality ... without experiencing any serious psychological damage."69 Relevant portions of his brother Modest's autobiography, where he tells of the composer's sexual orientation, have been published, as have letters previously suppressed by Soviet censors in which Tchaikovsky openly writes of it.70 Tchaikovsky lived as a bachelor for most of his life. In 1868 he met Belgian soprano Désirée Artôt. They became infatuated with each other and were engaged to be married71 but due to Artôt's refusal to give up the stage or settle in Russia, the relationship ended.72 Tchaikovsky later claimed she was the only woman he ever loved.73 In 1877, at the age of 37, he wed a former student, Antonina Miliukova.74 The marriage was a disaster. Mismatched psychologically and sexually,75 the couple lived together for only two and a half months before Tchaikovsky left, overwrought emotionally and suffering from an acute writer's block.76Tchaikovsky's family remained supportive of him during this crisis and throughout his life.77 He was also aided by Nadezhda von Meck, the widow of a railway magnate who had begun contact with him not long before the marriage. As well as an important friend and emotional support,78 she became his patroness for the next 13 years, which allowed him to focus exclusively on composition.79 Tchaikovsky's marital debacle may have forced him to face the full truth about his sexuality; he never blamed Antonina for the failure of their marriage.80 Years of wandering Nadezhda von Meck, Tchaikovsky's patroness and confidante from 1877 to 1890 Tchaikovsky remained abroad for a year after the disintegration of his marriage. During this time, he completed Eugene Onegin, orchestrated his Fourth Symphony, and composed the Violin Concerto.81 He returned briefly to the Moscow Conservatory in the autumn of 1879828 For the next few years, assured of a regular income from von Meck, he traveled incessantly throughout Europe and rural Russia, mainly alone, and avoided social contact whenever possible.83 During this time, Tchaikovsky's foreign reputation grew and a positive reassessment of his music also took place in Russia, thanks in part to Russian novelist Fyodor Dostoyevsky's call for "universal unity" with the West at the unveiling of the Pushkin Monument in Moscow in 1880. Before Dostoyevsky's speech, Tchaikovsky's music had been considered "overly dependent on the West." As Dostoyevsky's message spread throughout Russia, this stigma toward Tchaikovsky's music evaporated.84 An unprecedented acclaim for him even drew a cult following among the young intelligentsia of Saint Petersburg, including Alexandre Benois, Léon Bakst and Sergei Diaghilev.85 Two musical works from this period stand out. With the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour nearing completion in Moscow in 1880, the 25th anniversary of the coronation of Alexander II in 1881,9 and the 1882 Moscow Arts and Industry Exhibition in the planning stage, Nikolai Rubinstein suggested that Tchaikovsky compose a grand commemorative piece. Tchaikovsky agreed and finished it within six weeks. He wrote to Nadezhda von Meck that this piece, the 1812 Overture, would be "very loud and noisy, but I wrote it with no warm feeling of love, and therefore there will probably be no artistic merits in it."86 He also warned conductor Eduard Nápravník that "I shan't be at all surprised and offended if you find that it is in a style unsuitable for symphony concerts."86 Nevertheless, the overture became, for many, "the piece by Tchaikovsky they know best."87 On 23 March 1881, Nikolai Rubinstein died in Paris. That December, Tchaikovsky started work on his Piano Trio in A minor, "dedicated to the memory of a great artist."88 First performed privately at the Moscow Conservatory on the first anniversary of Rubinstein's death, the piece became extremely popular during the composer's lifetime; in November 1893, it would become Tchaikovsky's own elegy at memorial concerts in Moscow and St. Petersburg.8910 Return to Russia Tsar Alexander III In 1884 Tchaikovsky began to shed his unsociability and restlessness. That March, Tsar Alexander III conferred upon him the Order of St. Vladimir (fourth class), which included a title of hereditary nobility90 and a personal audience with the Tsar.91 This was seen as a seal of official approval which advanced Tchaikovsky's social standing90 and might have been cemented in the composer's mind by the success of his Orchestral Suite No. 3 at its January 1885 premiere in Saint Petersburg.92 In 1885, Alexander III requested a new production of Eugene Onegin at the Bolshoi Kamenny Theatre in Saint Petersburg.11 By having the opera staged there and not at the Mariinsky Theatre, he served notice that Tchaikovsky's music was replacing Italian opera as the official imperial art. In addition, thanks to Ivan Vsevolozhsky, Director of the Imperial Theaters and a patron of the composer, Tchaikovsky was awarded a lifetime annual pension of 3,000 rubles from the Tsar. This made him the premier court composer, in practice if not in actual title.93 Tchaikovsky's last home, in Klin, now the Tchaikovsky Museum Despite Tchaikovsky's disdain for public life, he now participated in it as part of his increasing celebrity and out of a duty he felt to promote Russian music. He helped support his former pupil Sergei Taneyev, who was now director of Moscow Conservatory, by attending student examinations and negotiating the sometimes sensitive relations among various members of the staff. He served as director of the Moscow branch of the Russian Musical Society during the 1889–1890 season. In this post, he invited many international celebrities to conduct, including Johannes Brahms, Antonín Dvořák and Jules Massenet.91 During this period, Tchaikovsky also began promoting Russian music as a conductor,91 In January 1887 he substituted, on short notice, at the Bolshoi Theater in Moscow for performances of his opera Cherevichki.94 Within a year, he was in considerable demand throughout Europe and Russia. These appearances helped him overcome life-long stage fright and boosted his self-assurance.95 In 1888 Tchaikovsky led the premiere of his Fifth Symphony in Saint Petersburg, repeating the work a week later with the first performance of his tone poem Hamlet. Although critics proved hostile, with César Cui calling the symphony "routine" and "meretricious", both works were received with extreme enthusiasm by audiences and Tchaikovsky, undeterred, continued to conduct the symphony in Russia and Europe.96Conducting brought him to the United States in 1891, where he led the New York Music Society's orchestra in his Festival Coronation March at the inaugural concert of Carnegie Hall.97 Belyayev circle and growing reputation See also: Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky and the Belyayev circle In November 1887, Tchaikovsky arrived at Saint Petersburg in time to hear several of the Russian Symphony Concerts, devoted exclusively to the music of Russian composers. One included the first complete performance of his revised First Symphony; another featured the final version of Third Symphony of Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, with whose circle Tchaikovsky was already in touch.98 Rimsky-Korsakov, with Alexander Glazunov, Anatoly Lyadov and several other nationalistically minded composers and musicians, had formed a group known as the Belyayev circle, named after a merchant and amateur musician who became an influential music patron and publisher.99 Tchaikovsky spent much time in this circle, becoming far more at ease with them than he had been with the 'Five' and increasingly confident in showcasing his music alongside theirs.100 This relationship lasted until Tchaikovsky's death.101102 In 1892, Tchaikovsky was voted a member of the Académie des Beaux-Arts in France, only the second Russian subject to be so honored (the first was sculptor Mark Antokolski).103 The following year, the University of Cambridge in England awarded Tchaikovsky an honorary Doctor of Music degree.104 Death See also: Death of Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky and Symphony No. 6 (Tchaikovsky) On 16/28 October 1893 Tchaikovsky conducted the premiere of his Sixth Symphony,105 the Pathétique in Saint Petersburg. Nine days later, Tchaikovsky died there, aged 53. He was interred in Tikhvin Cemetery at the Alexander Nevsky Monastery, near the graves of fellow-composers Alexander Borodin, Mikhail Glinka, and Modest Mussorgsky; later, Rimsky-Korsakov and Balakirev were also buried nearby.106 While Tchaikovsky's death has traditionally been attributed to cholera from drinking unboiled water at a local restaurant,107 as one story accounts, many writers have theorized that his death was a suicide.108 Opinion has been summarized as follows: "The polemics over Tchaikovsky's death have reached an impasse ... Rumors attached to the famous die hard ... As for illness, problems of evidence offer little hope of satisfactory resolution: the state of diagnosis; the confusion of witnesses; disregard of long-term effects of smoking and alcohol. We do not know how Tchaikovsky died. We may never find out ....." 109 Music See also: List of compositions by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Music of Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, and Symphonies by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky Original cast of Tchaikovsky's ballet, The Sleeping Beauty, Saint Petersburg, 1890 Tchaikovsky wrote many works that are popular with the classical music public, including his Romeo and Juliet, the 1812 Overture, his three ballets (The Nutcracker, Swan Lake, The Sleeping Beauty) and Marche Slave. These, along with his First Piano Concerto and his Violin Concerto, the last three of his six numbered symphonies and his operas The Queen of Spades and Eugene Onegin, are among his most familiar works. Almost as popular are the Manfred Symphony, Francesca da Rimini, the Capriccio Italien and the Serenade for Strings.110 Creative range Tchaikovsky displayed an unusually wide stylistic and emotional range, from salon works of innocuous charm to symphonies of tremendous depth, power and grandeur. Some of his works, such as the Variations on a Rococo Theme, employ a poised "Classical" form reminiscent of 18th-century composers such as Mozart (the composer whose work was his favorite). Other compositions, such as his Little Russian symphony and his opera Vakula the Smith, flirt with musical practices more akin to those of the Five, especially in their use of folk song.111 Other works, such as Tchaikovsky's last three symphonies, employ a personal musical idiom that facilitated intense emotional expression.112 Tchaikovsky and Ukraine Tchaikovsky first visited Ukraine in 1864, where he stayed in Trostianets city and where he wrote his first orchestral work, The Storm overture. Over the next 28 years he visited over 15 places in Ukraine, where he stayed a few months at the time. Among his most favorite places was Kamianka, Cherkasy Oblast, where his sister Alexandra lived with her family. He wrote about that place: "I found a feeling of peace in my soul, which I couldn't find in Moscow and St Petersburg".113 Tchaikovsky wrote more than 30 compositions while in Ukraine. He also visited Ukrainian composer Mykola Lysenko and attended his Taras Bulba opera performance in 1890 in Kiev opera house. Tchaikovsky was one of the founders of the Kiev Music Conservatory, which was later named after him. He also performed in concerts as a conductor in Kiev, Odessa, and Kharkiv. Compositional style Melody American music critic and journalist Harold C. Schonberg wrote of Tchaikovsky's "sweet, inexhaustible, supersensuous fund of melody," a feature that has ensured his music's continued success with audiences.114Tchaikovsky's complete range of melodic styles was as wide as that of his compositions. Sometimes he used Western-style melodies, sometimes original melodies written in the style of Russian folk song; sometimes he used actual folk songs.111 According to The New Grove, Tchaikovsky's melodic gift could also become his worst enemy in two ways. The first challenge arose from his ethnic heritage. Unlike Western themes, the melodies that Russian composers wrote tended to be self-contained; they functioned with a mindset of stasis and repetition rather than one of progress and ongoing development. On a technical level, it made modulating to a new key to introduce a contrasting second theme exceedingly difficult, as this was literally a foreign concept that did not exist in Russian music.115 The second way melody worked against Tchaikovsky was a challenge that he shared with the majority of Romantic-age composers. They did not write in the regular, symmetrical melodic shapes that worked well with sonata form, such as those favored by Classical composers such as Haydn, Mozart or Beethoven, but were complete and independent in themselves.116 This completeness hindered their use as structural elements in combination with one another. This challenge was why the Romantics "were never natural symphonists.".117 All a composer like Tchaikovsky could do with them was to essentially repeat them, even when he modified them to generate tension, maintain interest and satisfy listeners.118 Harmony Harmony could be a potential trap for Tchaikovsky, according to Brown, since Russian creativity tended to focus on inertia and self-enclosed tableaux, while Western harmony worked against this to propel the music onward and, on a larger scale, shape it.119 Modulation, the shifting from one key to another, was a driving principle in both harmony and sonata form, the primary Western large-scale musical structure since the middle of the 18th century. Modulation maintained harmonic interest over an extended time-scale, provided a clear contrast between musical themes and showed how those themes were related to each other.120 One point in Tchaikovsky's favor was "a flair for harmony" that "astonished" Rudolph Kündinger, Tchaikovsky's music tutor during his time at the School of Jurisprudence.121 Added to what he learned at the Saint Petersburg Conservatory studies, this talent allowed Tchaikovsky to employ a varied range of harmony in his music, from the Western harmonic and textural practices of his first two string quartets to the use of the whole tone scale in the center of the finale of the Second Symphony, a practice more typically used by The Five.111 Rhythm Rhythmically, Tchaikovsky sometimes experimented with unusual meters. More often, he used a firm, regular meter, a practice that served him well in dance music. At times, his rhythms became pronounced enough to become the main expressive agent of the music. They also became a means, found typically in Russian folk music, of simulating movement or progression in large-scale symphonic movements—a "synthetic propulsion," as Brown phrases it, which substituted for the momentum that would be created in strict sonata form by the interaction of melodic or motivic elements. This interaction generally does not take place in Russian music.122 (For more on this, please see Repetition below.) Structure Tchaikovsky struggled with sonata form. Its principle of organic growth through the interplay of musical themes was alien to Russian practice.115 According to Brown and musicologists Hans Keller and Daniel Zhitomirsky, Tchaikovsky found his solution to large-scale structure while composing the Fourth Symphony. He essentially sidestepped thematic interaction and kept sonata form only as an "outline," as Zhitomirsky phrases it.123 Within this outline, the focus centered on periodic alternation and juxtaposition. Tchaikovsky placed blocks of dissimilar tonal and thematic material alongside one another, with what Keller calls "new and violent contrasts" between musical themes, keys and harmonies.124 This process, according to Brown and Keller, builds momentum125 and adds intense drama.126 While the result, Warrack charges, is still "an ingenious episodic treatment of two tunes rather than a symphonic development of them" in the Germanic sense,127 Brown counters that it took the listener of the period "through a succession of often highly charged sections which added up to a radically new kind of symphonic experience" (italics Brown), one that functioned not on the basis of summation, as Austro-German symphonies did, but on one of accumulation.125 Partly due to the melodic and structural intricacies involved in this accumulation and partly due to the composer's nature, Tchaikovsky's music became intensely expressive.128 This intensity was entirely new to Russian music and prompted some Russians to place Tchaikovsky's name alongside that of Dostoyevsky.129German musicologist Hermann Kretzschmar credits Tchaikovsky in his later symphonies with offering "full images of life, developed freely, sometimes even dramatically, around psychological contrasts ... This music has the mark of the truly lived and felt experience."130 Botstein, in elaborating on this comment, suggests that listening to Tchaikovsky's music "became a psychological mirror connected to everyday experience, one that reflected on the dynamic nature of the listener’s own emotional self." This active engagement with the music "opened for the listener a vista of emotional and psychological tension and an extremity of feeling that possessed relevance because it seemed reminiscent of one’s own 'truly lived and felt experience' or one’s search for intensity in a deeply personal sense."131 Repetition Sequence ascending by step Play (help·info). Note that there are only four segments, continuously higher, and that the segments continue by the same distance (seconds: C-D, D-E, etc.). As mentioned above, repetition was a natural part of Tchaikovsky's music, just as it is an integral part of Russian music.132 His use of sequences within melodies (repeating a tune at a higher or lower pitch in the same voice)133 could go on for extreme length.111 The problem with repetition is that, over a period of time, the melody being repeated remains static, even when there is a surface level of rhythmic activity added to it.134 Tchaikovsky kept the musical conversation flowing by treating melody, tonality, rhythm and sound color as one integrated unit, rather than as separate elements.135 By making subtle but noticeable changes in the rhythm or phrasing of a tune, modulating to another key, changing the melody itself or varying the instruments playing it, Tchaikovsky could keep a listener's interest from flagging. By extending the number of repetitions, he could increase the musical and dramatic tension of a passage, building "into an emotional experience of almost unbearable intensity," as Brown phrases it, controlling when the peak and release of that tension would take place.136 Musicologist Martin Cooper calls this practice a subtle form of unifying a piece of music and adds that Tchaikovsky brought it to a high point of refinement.137 (For more on this practice, see the next section.) Orchestration Like other late Romantic composers, Tchaikovsky relied heavily on orchestration for musical effects.138Tchaikovsky, however, became noted for the "sensual opulence" and "voluptuous timbrel virtuosity" of his scoring.139 Like Glinka, Tchaikovsky tended toward bright primary colors and sharply delineated contrasts of texture.140 However, beginning with the Third Symphony, Tchaikovsky experimented with an increased range of timbres141 Tchaikovsky's scoring was noted and admired by some of his peers. Rimsky-Korsakov regularly referred his students at the Saint Petersburg Conservatory to it and called it "devoid of all striving after effect, to give a healthy, beautiful sonority."142 This sonority, musicologist Richard Taruskin points out, is essentially Germanic in effect. Tchaikovsky's expert use of having two or more instruments play a melody simultaneously (a practice called doubling) and his ear for uncanny combinations of instruments resulted in "a generalized orchestral sonority in which the individual timbres of the instruments, being thoroughly mixed, would vanish."143 Pastiche (Passé-ism) In works like the Serenade for Strings and the Variations on a Rococo Theme, Tchaikovsky showed he was highly gifted at writing in a style of 18th century European pastiche. In the ballet The Sleeping Beauty and the opera The Queen of Spades, Tchaikovsky graduated from imitation to full-scale evocation. This practice, which Alexandre Benois calls "passé-ism," lends an air of timelessness and immediacy, making the past seem as though it were the present.144 On a practical level, Tchaikovsky was drawn to past styles because he felt he might find the solution to certain structural problems within them. His Rococo pastiches also may have offered escape into a musical world purer than his own, into which he felt himself irresistibly drawn. (In this sense, Tchaikovsky operated in the opposite manner to Igor Stravinsky, who turned to Neoclassicism partly as a form of compositional self-discovery.) Tchaikovsky's attraction to ballet might have allowed a similar refuge into a fairy-tale world, where he could freely write dance music within a tradition of French elegance.145 Antecedents and influences Robert Schumann, lithograph by Josef Kriehuber, in 1839 Of Tchaikovsky's Western contemporaries, Robert Schumann stands out as an influence in formal structure, harmonic practices and piano writing, according to Brown and musicologist Roland John Wiley.146 As mentioned earlier, Asafyev comments that Schumann left his mark on Tchaikovsky not just as a formal influence but also as an example of musical dramaturgy and self-expression.147Leon Botstein claims the music of Franz Liszt and Richard Wagner also left their imprints on Tchaikovsky's orchestral style.14812The late-Romantic trend for writing orchestral suites, begun by Franz Lachner, Jules Massenet and Joachim Raff after the rediscovery of Bach's works in that genre, may have influenced Tchaikovsky to try his own hand at them.149 His teacher Anton Rubinstein's opera The Demon became a model for the final tableau of Eugene Onegin.150 So did Léo Delibes' ballets Coppélia and Sylvia for The Sleeping Beauty13 and Georges Bizet's opera Carmen (a work Tchaikovsky admired tremendously) for The Queen of Spades.151Otherwise, it was to composers of the past that Tchaikovsky turned—Beethoven, whose music he respected;152 Mozart, whose music he loved;152 Glinka, whose opera A Life for the Tsar made an indelible impression on him as a child and whose scoring he studied assiduously;153 and Adolphe Adam, whose ballet Giselle was a favorite of his from his student days and whose score he consulted while working on The Sleeping Beauty.154 Beethoven's string quartets may have influenced Tchaikovsky's attempts in that medium.155 Other composers whose work interested Tchaikovsky included Hector Berlioz, Felix Mendelssohn, Giacomo Meyerbeer and Henry Litolff.156 Aesthetic impact Maes maintains that, regardless of what he was writing, Tchaikovsky's main concern was how his music impacted his listeners on an aesthetic level, at specific moments in the piece and on a cumulative level once the music had finished. What his listeners experienced on an emotional or visceral level became an end in itself.157 Tchaikovsky's focus on pleasing his audience might be considered closer to that of Mendelssohn or Mozart. Considering that he lived and worked in what was probably the last 19th century feudal nation, the statement is not actually that surprising.158 And yet, even when writing so-called 'programme music, for example his Romeo and Juliet fantasy overture, he cast it in sonata form. His use of stylized 18th-century melodies and patriotic themes was geared toward the values of Russian aristocracy.159 He was aided in this by Ivan Vsevolozhsky, who commissioned The Sleeping Beauty from Tchaikovsky and the libretto for The Queen of Spades from Modest with their use of 18th century settings stipulated firmly.16014 Tchaikovsky also used the polonaise frequently, the dance being a musical code for the Romanov dynasty and a symbol of Russian patriotism. Using it in the finale of a work could assure its success with Russian listeners.161 Reception Dedicatees and collaborators Marius Petipa Tchaikovsky's relationship with collaborators was mixed. Like Nikolai Rubinstein with the First Piano Concerto, virtuoso and pedagogue Leopold Auer rejected the Violin Concerto initially but changed his mind; he played it to great public success and taught it to his students, who included Jascha Heifetz and Nathan Milstein.162 Wilhelm Fitzenhagen "intervened considerably in shaping what he considered 'his' piece," the Variations on a Rococo Theme, according to music critic Michael Steinberg. Tchaikovsky was angered by Fitzenhagen's license but did nothing; the Rococo Variations were published with the cellist's amendments.16315 His collaboration on the three ballets went better and in Marius Petipa, who worked with him on the last two, he might have found an advocate.16 When The Sleeping Beauty was seen by its dancers as needlessly complicated, Petipa convinced them to put in the extra effort. Tchaikovsky compromised to make his music as practical as possible for the dancers and was accorded more creative freedom than ballet composers were usually accorded at the time. He responded with scores that minimized the rhythmic subtleties normally present in his work but were inventive and rich in melody, with more refined and imaginative orchestration than in the average ballet score.164 Critics Eduard Hanslick Critical reception to Tchaikovsky's music has also varied but also improved over time. Even after 1880, some inside Russia held it suspect for not being nationalistic enough and thought Western European critics lauded it for exactly that reason.165 There might have been a grain of truth in the latter, according to musicologist and conductor Leon Botstein, as German critics especially wrote of the "indeterminacy of Tchaikovsky's artistic character ... being truly at home in the non-Russian."166 Of the foreign critics who did not care for his music, Eduard Hanslick lambasted the Violin Concerto as a musical composition "whose stink one can hear"167 and William Forster Abtrop wrote of the Fifth Symphony, "The furious peroration sounds like nothing so much as a horde of demons struggling in a torrent of brandy, the music growing drunker and drunker. Pandemonium, delerium tremens, raving, and above all, noise worse confounded!"168 The division between Russian and Western critics remained through much of the 20th century but for a different reason. According to Brown and Wiley, the prevailing view of Western critics was that the same qualities in Tchaikovsky's music that appealed to audiences—its strong emotions, directness and eloquence and colorful orchestration—added up to compositional shallowness.169 The music's use in popular and film music, Brown says, lowered its esteem in their eyes still further.111 There was also the fact, pointed out earlier, that Tchaikovsky's music demanded active engagement from the listener and, as Botstein phrases it, "spoke to the listener’s imaginative interior life, regardless of nationality." Conservative critics, he adds, may have felt threatened by the "violence and 'hysteria' " they detected and felt such emotive displays "attacked the boundaries of conventional aesthetic appreciation—the cultured reception of art as an act of formalist discernment—and the polite engagement of art as an act of amusement."131 There has also been the fact that the composer did not follow sonata form strictly, relying instead on juxtaposing blocks of tonalities and thematic groups. Maes states this point has been seen at times as a weakness rather than a sign of originality.135 Even with what Schonberg termed "a professional reevaluaton" of Tchaikovsky's work,110 the practice of faulting Tchaikovsky for not following in the steps of the Viennese masters has not gone away entirely, while his intent of writing music that would please his audiences is also sometimes taken to task. In a 1992 article, New York Times critic Allan Kozinn writes, "It is Tchaikovsky's flexibility, after all, that has given us a sense of his variability.... Tchaikovsky was capable of turning out music—entertaining and widely beloved though it is—that seems superficial, manipulative and trivial when regarded in the context of the whole literature. The First Piano Concerto is a case in point. It makes a joyful noise, it swims in pretty tunes and its dramatic rhetoric allows (or even requires) a soloist to make a grand, swashbuckling impression. But it is entirely hollow."170 In the 21st century, however, critics are reacting more positively to Tchaikovsky's tunefulness, originality, and craftsmanship.110 "Tchaikovsky is being viewed again as a composer of the first rank, writing music of depth, innovation and influence," according to cultural historian and author Joseph Horowitz.171 Important in this reevaluation is a shift in attitude away from the disdain for overt emotionalism that marked half of the 20th century.172 "We have acquired a different view of Romantic 'excess,'" Horowitz says. "Tchaikovsky is today more admired than deplored for his emotional frankness; if his music seems harried and insecure, so are we all."171 Public See also: Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky in popular media Horowitz maintains that, while the standing of Tchaikovsky's music has fluctuated among critics, for the public, "it never went out of style, and his most popular works have yielded iconic sound-bytes [sic], such as the love theme from Romeo and Juliet."171 Along with those tunes, Botstein adds, "Tchaikovsky appealed to audiences outside of Russia with an immediacy and directness that were startling even for music, an art form often associated with emotion."173 Tchaikovsky's melodies, stated with eloquence and matched by his inventive use of harmony and orchestration, have always ensured audience appeal.174 His popularity is considered secure, with his following in many countries, including Great Britain and the United States, second only to that of Beethoven.109 His music has also been used frequently in the realms of popular music and film.175 Legacy According to Wiley, Tchaikovsky was a pioneer in several ways. "Thanks in large part to Nadezhda von Meck", Wiley writes, "he became the first full-time professional Russian composer." This, Wiley adds, allowed him the time and freedom to consolidate the Western compositional practices he had learned at the Saint Petersburg Conservatory with Russian folk song and other native musical elements to fulfill his own expressive goals and forge an original, deeply personal style. He made an impact not only in absolute works such as the symphony but also in program music and, as Wiley phrases it, "transformed Liszt's and Berlioz's achievements ... into matters of Shakespearean elevation and psychological import."176 Wiley and Holden both note that Tchaikovsky did all this without a native school of composition upon which to fall back. They point out that only Glinka had preceded him in combining Russian and Western practices and his teachers in Saint Petersburg had been thoroughly Germanic in their musical outlook. He was, they write, for all intents and purposes alone in his artistic quest.177 Maes and Taruskin write that Tchaikovsky believed that his professionalism in combining skill and high standards in his musical works separated him from his contemporaries in The Five.178 Maes adds that, like them, he wanted to produce music that reflected Russian national character but which did so to the highest European standards of quality.179 Tchaikovsky, according to Maes, came along at a time when the nation itself was deeply divided as to what that character truly was. Like his country, Maes writes, it took him time to discover how to express his Russianness in a way that was true to himself and what he had learned. Because of his professionalism, Maes says, he worked hard at this goal and succeeded. The composer's friend, music critic Hermann Laroche, wrote of The Sleeping Beauty that the score contained "an element deeper and more general than color, in the internal structure of the music, above all in the foundation of the element of melody. This basic element is undoubtedly Russian."180 Tchaikovsky was inspired to reach beyond Russia with his music, according to Maes and Taruskin.181 His exposure to Western music, they write, encouraged him to think it belonged not just to Russia but to the world at large.36 Volkov adds that this mindset made him think seriously about Russia's place in European musical culture—the first Russian composer to do so.84 It steeled him to become the first Russian composer to personally acquaint foreign audiences with his own works, Warrack writes, as well as those of other Russian composers.182 In his biography of Tchaikovsky, Anthony Holden recalls the dearth of Russian classical music before Tchaikovsky's birth, then places the composer's achievements into historical perspective: "Twenty years after Tchaikovsky's death, in 1913, Igor Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring erupted onto the musical scene, signalling Russia's arrival into 20th-century music. Between these two very different worlds Tchaikovsky's music became the sole bridge."183 lock, "I am a bad pianist and my voice is raspy. Why should one eternalize it?"185 Notes # Jump up^ Russian: Пётр Ильи́ч Чайко́вский, tr. Pëtr Il'ich Tchaikovskiy IPA: ɪlʲˈjitɕ tɕɪjˈkofskʲɪj ( listen), English respelling pyoh'''-tər'' ''il-'''yich chy-'''kof'-skee''; often "Peter Ilich Tchaikovsky" /ˈpiːtər ˈɪlᵻtʃ tʃaɪˈkɒfski/ in English. His names are also transliterated "Piotr" or "Petr"; "Ilitsch", "Il'ich" or "Illyich"; and "Tschaikowski", "Tschaikowsky", "Chajkovskij" and "Chaikovsky" (and other versions; the transliteration varies among languages). The Library of Congress standardized the usage Peter Ilich Tchaikovsky. # Jump up^ Russia was still using old style dates in the 19th century, rendering his lifespan as 25 April 1840 – 25 October 1893. Some sources in the article report dates as old style rather than new style. Dates are expressed here in the same style as the source from which they come # Jump up^ Tchaikovsky had four brothers (Nikolai, Ippolit, Anatoly and Modest), a sister (Alexandra) and a half-sister (Zinaida) from his father's first marriage (Holden, 6, 13; Warrack, Tchaikovsky, 18). Anatoly would later have a prominent legal career, while Modest became a dramatist, librettist, and translator (Poznansky, Eyes, 2). # Jump up^ Her death affected him so much that he could not inform Fanny Dürbach until two years later (Brown, Early, 47; Holden, 23.; Warrack, 29). More than 25 years after his loss, Tchaikovsky wrote to his patroness, Nadezhda von Meck, "Every moment of that appalling day is as vivid to me as though it were yesterday" (As quoted in Holden, 23) # Jump up^ Tchaikovsky ascribed Rubinstein's coolness to a difference in musical temperaments. Rubinstein could have been jealous professionally of Tchaikovsky's greater impact as a composer. Homophobia might have been another factor (Poznansky, Eyes, 29). # Jump up^ An exception to Rubinstein's antipathy was the Serenade for Strings, which he declared "Tchaikovsky's best piece" when he heard it in rehearsal. "At last this St. Petersburg pundit, who had growled with such consistent disapproval at Tchaikovsky's successive compositions, had found a work by his former pupil which he could endorse," according to Tchaikovsky biographer David Brown (Brown, Wandering, 121). # Jump up^ His critique led Tchaikovsky to consider rescoring Schumann's symphonies, a project he never realized (Wiley, Tchaikovsky, 79). # Jump up^ Rubinstein had actually been operating under the assumption that Tchaikovsky might leave from the onset of the composer's marital crisis and was prepared for it (Wiley, Tchaikovsky, 189–90). However, his meddling in the Tchaikovsky–von Meck relationship might have contributed to the composer's actual departure. Rubinstein's actions, which soured his relations with both Tchaikovsky and von Meck, included imploring von Meck in person to end Tchaikovsky's subsidy for the composer's own good (Brown, Crisis, 250; Wiley, Tchaikovsky, 188–9). Rubinstein's actions, in turn, had been spurred by Tchaikovsky's withdrawal from the Russian delegation for the 1878 Paris World's Fair, a position for which Rubinstein had lobbied on the composer's behalf (Brown, Crisis, 249–50; Wiley, Tchaikovsky, 180, 188–189). Rubinstein had been scheduled to conduct four concerts there; the first featured Tchaikovsky's First Piano Concerto (Wiley, Tchaikovsky, 190). # Jump up^ Celebration of this anniversary did not take place as Alexander II was assassinated in March 1881. # Jump up^ The piece also fulfilled a long-standing request by von Meck for such a work, to be performed by her then-house pianist, Claude Debussy (Brown, New Grove (1980), 18:620). # Jump up^ Its only other production had been by students from the Conservatory. # Jump up^ As proof of Wagner's influence, Botstein cites a letter from Tchaikovsky to Taneyev, in which the composer "readily admits the influence of the Nibelungen on Francesca da Rimini." This letter is quoted in Brown, Crisis, 108. # Jump up^ While it is sometimes thought these two ballets also influenced Tchaikovsky's work on Swan Lake, he had already composed that work before learning of them (Brown, Crisis, 77). # Jump up^ Vsevolozhsky originally intended the libretto for a now-unknown composer named Nikolai Klenovsky, not Tchaikovsky (Maes, 152). # Jump up^ The composer's original has since been published but most cellists still perform Fitzenhagen's version (Campbell, 77). # Jump up^ Tchaikovsky's work with Julius Reisinger on Swan Lake was evidently also successful, since it left him with no qualms about working with Petipa, but very little is written about it (Maes, 146). References # Jump up^ Inogolo.com # Jump up^ Holden, 4. # Jump up^ Brown, Early, 19 # Jump up^ . # Jump up^ Poznansky, Eyes, 1; Holden, 5. # ^ Jump up to:a'' ''b Wiley, Tchaikovsky, 6. # Jump up^ Holden, 31. # ^ Jump up to:a'' ''b Holden, 43. # Jump up^ Holden, 202. # Jump up^ Brown, Early, 22; Holden, 7. # Jump up^ Holden, 7. # Jump up^ Brown, Early, 27; Holden, 6–8 # Jump up^ Poznansky, Quest, 5. # Jump up^ Brown, Early, 25–26; Wiley, Tchaikovsky, 7. # Jump up^ Brown, Early, 31; Wiley, Tchaikovsky, 8. # Jump up^ Maes, 33. # Jump up^ Wiley, Tchaikovsky, 8. # Jump up^ Holden, 14; Warrack, Tchaikovsky, 26. # Jump up^ Holden, 20. # Jump up^ Holden, 15; Poznansky, Quest, 11–12. # Jump up^ Holden, 23. # Jump up^ Holden, 23–24, 26; Poznansky, Quest, 32–37; Warrack, Tchaikovsky, 30. # Jump up^ Holden, 24; Poznansky, Quest, 26 # Jump up^ As quoted in Holden, 25. # Jump up^ Brown, Early, 43. # Jump up^ Holden, 24–25; Warrack, Tchaikovsky, 31. # Jump up^ Poznansky, Eyes, 17. # Jump up^ Holden, 25; Warrack, Tchaikovsky, 31. # Jump up^ Brown, Man and Music, 14. # Jump up^ Maes, 31. # Jump up^ Maes, 35. # Jump up^ Volkov, 71. # Jump up^ Maes, 35; Warrack, Tchaikovsky, 36. # Jump up^ Brown, Early, 60 # Jump up^ Brown, Man and Music, 20; Holden, 38–39; Warrack, Tchaikovsky, 36–38. # ^ Jump up to:a'' ''b Taruskin, Grove Opera, 4:663–4. # Jump up^ Figes, xxxii; Volkov, 111–12. # Jump up^ Hosking, 347. # Jump up^ Poznansky, Eyes, 47–8; Rubinstein, 110. # Jump up^ Brown, Early, 76; Wiley, Tchaikovsky, 35. # Jump up^ Brown, Early, 100–101. # Jump up^ Brown, New Grove, 18:608. # Jump up^ Brown, Early, 82–3. # Jump up^ Holden, 83; Warrack, Tchaikovsky, 61. # Jump up^ Wiley, Tchaikovsky, 87. # Jump up^ Wiley, Tchaikovsky, 79. # Jump up^ As quoted in Wiley, Tchaikovsky, 95. # Jump up^ Wiley, Tchaikovsky, 77. # Jump up^ Figes, 178–81. # Jump up^ Maes, 8–9; Wiley, Tchaikovsky, 27. # Jump up^ Garden, New Grove (2001), 8:913. # Jump up^ Maes, 39. # Jump up^ Maes, 42. # Jump up^ Maes, 49. # Jump up^ Brown, Man and Music, 49. # Jump up^ Brown, Early, 255. # Jump up^ Holden, 51–52. # ^ Jump up to:a'' ''b c'' Wiley, New Grove (2001), 25:147. # '''Jump up^ Steinberg, Concerto, 474–6; Wiley, New Grove (2001), 25:161. # Jump up^ Wiley, New Grove (2001), 25:153–4. # ^ Jump up to:'''''a b'' Taruskin, 665. # '''Jump up^ Holden, 75–6; Warrack, Tchaikovsky, 58–9. # Jump up^ Brown, Viking, 1086. # Jump up^ Maes, 171. # Jump up^ Wiley, Tchaikovsky, xvi. # Jump up^ Maes, 133–4; Wiley, Tchaikovsky, xvii. # Jump up^ Poznansky, Quest, all. # Jump up^ Brown, Early, 50. # Jump up^ Poznansky, as quoted in Holden, 394. # Jump up^ Poznansky, Eyes, 8, 24, 77, 82, 103–5, 165–8. Also see P.I. Chaikovskii. Al'manakh, vypusk 1, (Moscow, 1995). # Jump up^ Brown, Early Years, 156–7; Warrack, Tchaikovsky, 53. # Jump up^ Brown, Early, 156-8; Poznansky, Eyes, 88. # Jump up^ # Jump up^ Brown, Crisis, 137–47; Polayansky, Quest, 207–8, 219–20; Wiley, Tchaikovsky, 147–50. # Jump up^ Brown, Crisis, 146–8; Poznansky, Quest, 234; Wiley, Tchaikovsky, 152. # Jump up^ Brown, Crisis, 157; Poznansky, Quest, 234; Wiley, Tchaikovsky, 155. # Jump up^ Wiley, New Grove (2001), 25:147. # Jump up^ Holden, 159, 231–2. # Jump up^ Brown, Man and Music, 171–2. # Jump up^ Warrack, Tchaikovsky, 120. # Jump up^ Wiley, Tchaikovsky, 159, 170, 193. # Jump up^ Brown, Crisis, 297. # Jump up^ Brown, Man and Music, 219. # ^ Jump up to:'''''a b'' Volkov, 126. # '''Jump up^ Volkov, 122–3. # ^ Jump up to:'''''a b'' As quoted in Brown, Wandering, 119. # '''Jump up^ Brown, Man and Music, 224. # Jump up^ As quoted in Brown, Wandering, 151. # Jump up^ Brown, Wandering, 151-2. # ^ Jump up to:'''''a b'' Brown, New Grove, 18:621; Holden, 233. # ^ Jump up to:''a b'' ''c Wiley, New Grove (2001), 25:162. # Jump up^ Brown, Man and Music, 275. # Jump up^ Maes, 140; Taruskin, Grove Opera, 4:664. # Jump up^ Holden, 261; Warrack, Tchaikovsky, 197. # Jump up^ Holden, 266; Warrack, Tchaikovsky, 232. # Jump up^ Holden, 272–3. # Jump up^ Brown, Final, 319–320 # Jump up^ Brown, Final Years, 90–1 # Jump up^ Maes, 173 # Jump up^ Brown, Final, 92. # Jump up^ Poznansky, Quest, 564. # Jump up^ Rimsky-Korsakov, 308. # Jump up^ Poznansky, Quest, 548–549. # Jump up^ Warrack, Tchaikovsky, 264. # Jump up^ 1 # Jump up^ Brown, Final, 487. # Jump up^ Brown Man and Music, 430–2; Holden, 371; Warrack, Tchaikovsky, 269–70. # Jump up^ Brown, Man and Music, 431–5; Holden, 373–400. # ^ Jump up to:a'' ''b Wiley, New Grove (2001), 25:169. # ^ Jump up to:a'' ''b c'' Schonberg, 367. # ^ Jump up to:''a b'' ''c d'' ''e Brown, New Grove (1980), 18:628. # Jump up^ Brown, New Grove, 18:606. # Jump up^ # Jump up^ Schonberg, 366. # ^ Jump up to:a'' ''b Brown, Final, 424. # Jump up^ Cooper, 26. # Jump up^ Cooper, 24. # Jump up^ Warrack, Symphonies, 8–9. # Jump up^ Brown, Final, 422, 432–4. # Jump up^ Roberts, New Grove (1980), 12:454. # Jump up^ As quoted in Polyansky, Eyes, 18. # Jump up^ Brown, New Grove (1980), 18:628; Final, 424. # Jump up^ Zhitomirsky, 102. # Jump up^ Brown, Final, 426; Keller, 347. # ^ Jump up to:a'' ''b Brown, Final, 426. # Jump up^ Keller, 346–7. # Jump up^ Warrack, Symphonies, 11. # Jump up^ Brown, New Grove (1980), 18:628; Keller, 346–7; Maes, 161. # Jump up^ Volkov, 115 # Jump up^ As quoted in Botstein, 101. # ^ Jump up to:a'' ''b Botstein, 101. # Jump up^ Warrack, Symphonies, 9. Also see Brown, Final, 422–3. # Jump up^ Benward and Saker, 111–12. # Jump up^ Brown, Final, 423–4; Warrack, Symphonies, 9. # ^ Jump up to:a'' ''b Maes, 161. # Jump up^ Brown, New Grove (1980), 18:628. Also see Bostrick, 105. # Jump up^ Cooper, 32. # Jump up^ Holoman, New Grove (2001), 12:413. # Jump up^ Maes, 73; Taruskin, Grove Opera, 4:669. # Jump up^ Brown, New Grove (1980), 18:628; Hopkins, New Grove (1980), 13:698. # Jump up^ Maes, 78. # Jump up^ As quoted in Taruskin, Stravinsky, 206. # Jump up^ Taruskin, Stravinsky, 206 # Jump up^ Volkov, 124. # Jump up^ Brown, New Grove (1980), 18:613, 615. # Jump up^ Brown, New Grove (1980), 18:613, 18:620; Wiley, Tchaikovsky, 58. # Jump up^ Asafyev, 13–14. # Jump up^ Bostein, 103. # Jump up^ Fuller, New Grove (2001), 24:681–2; Maes, 155. # Jump up^ Taruskin, Grove Opera, 4:664. # Jump up^ Brown, Final, 189–9; Maes, 131, 138, 152. # ^ Jump up to:a'' ''b Wiley, Tchaikovsky, 293–4. # Jump up^ Brown, Early, 34, 97. # Jump up^ Brown, Early, 39, 52, Final, 187. # Jump up^ Wiley, New Grove (2001), 25:149. # Jump up^ Brown, Early, 72. # Jump up^ Maes, 138. # Jump up^ Figes, 274; Maes, 139–41. # Jump up^ Maes, 137. # Jump up^ Maes, 146, 152. # Jump up^ Figes, 274; Maes, 78–9, 137. # Jump up^ Steinberg # Jump up^ Brown, Crisis, 122. # Jump up^ Maes, 145–8. # Jump up^ Botstein, 99. # Jump up^ As quoted in Botstein, 100. # Jump up^ Hanslick, Eduard, Music Criticisms 1850–1900, ed. and trans. Henry Pleasants (Baltimore: Penguin Books, 1963). As quoted in Steinberg, Concerto, 487. # Jump up^ Boston Evening Transcript, October 23, 1892. As quoted in Steinberg, Symphony, 631 # Jump up^ Brown, New Grove (1980), 18:628; Wiley, New Grove (2001), 25:169. # Jump up^ # ^ Jump up to:a'' ''b c # Jump up^ Wiley, New Grove (2001), 25:169. # Jump up^ Botstein, 100. # Jump up^ Brown, New Grove, 18:606–7, 628. # Jump up^ Steinberg, The Symphony, 611. # Jump up^ Wiley, New Grove (2001), 25:144. # Jump up^ Holden, xxi; Wiley, New Grove (2001), 25:144. # Jump up^ Maes, 73; Taruskin, Grove Opera, 4:663. # Jump up^ Maes, 73. # Jump up^ As quoted in Maes, 166. # Jump up^ Maes, 73; Taruskin, Grove Opera, 664. # Jump up^ Warrack, 209. # Jump up^ Holden, xxi. # Jump up^ Tchaikovsky Research website # Jump up^ As quoted in Poznansky, Eyes, 216. Sources * Asafyev, Boris, "The Great Russian Composer." In Russian Symphony: Thoughts About Tchaikovsky (New York: Philosophical Library, 1947). ISBN n/a. * Benward, Bruce and Marilyn Saker, Music: In Theory and Practice, Vol. 1 (New York: McGraw-Hill, 2003), Seventh Edition. ISBN 978-0-07-294262-0. * Bergamini, John, The Tragic Dynasty: A History of the Romanovs (New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1969). Library of Congress Card Catalog Number 68-15498. * Botstein, Leon, "Music as the Language of Psychological Realm." In Tchaikovsky and His World (Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1998), ed. Kearney, Leslie. ISBN 0-691-00429-3. * Brown, David, "Glinka, Mikhail Ivanovich" and "Tchaikovsky, Pyotr Ilyich." In The New Grove Encyclopedia of Music and Musicians (London: MacMillan, 1980), 20 vols., ed. Sadie, Stanley. ISBN 0-333-23111-2. * Brown, David, Tchaikovsky: The Early Years, 1840–1874 (New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 1978). ISBN 0-393-07535-4. * Brown, David, Tchaikovsky: The Crisis Years, 1874–1878, (New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 1983). ISBN 0-393-01707-9. * Brown, David, Tchaikovsky: The Years of Wandering, 1878–1885, (New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 1986). ISBN 0-393-02311-7. * Brown, David, Tchaikovsky: The Final Years, 1885–1893, (New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 1991). ISBN 0-393-03099-7. * Brown, David, Tchaikovsky: The Man and His Music (New York: Pegasus Books, 2007). ISBN 0-571-23194-2. * Cooper, Martin, "The Symphonies." In Music of Tchaikovsky (New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 1946), ed. Abraham, Gerald. ISBN n/a. OCLC 385829 * Druckenbrod, Andrew, "Festival to explore Tchaikovsky's changing reputation." In''Pittsburgh Post-Gazette'', 30 January 2011. Retrieved 27 February 2012. * Figes, Orlando, Natasha's Dance: A Cultural History of Russia (New York: Metropolitan Books, 2002). ISBN 0-8050-5783-8 (hc.). * Hanson, Lawrence and Hanson, Elisabeth, Tchaikovsky: The Man Behind the Music (New York: Dodd, Mead & Company). Library of Congress Catalog Card No. 66–13606. * Holden, Anthony, Tchaikovsky: A Biography (New York: Random House, 1995). ISBN 0-679-42006-1. * Holomon, D. Kern, "Instrumentation and orchestration, 4: 19th century." In The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, Second Edition (London: Macmillan, 2001), 29 vols., ed. Sadie, Stanley. ISBN 1-56159-239-0. * Hopkins, G.W., "Orchestration, 4: 19th century." In The New Grove Encyclopedia of Music and Musicians (London: MacMillan, 1980), 20 vols., ed. Sadie, Stanley. ISBN 0-333-23111-2. * Hosking, Geoffrey, Russia and the Russians: A History (Cambridge, Massachusetts: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2001). ISBN 0-674-00473-6. * Jackson, Timothy L., Tchaikovsky, Symphony no. 6 (Pathétique) (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999). ISBN 0-521-64676-6. * Karlinsky, Simon, "Russia's Gay Literature and Culture: The Impact of the October Revolution." In Hidden from History: Reclaiming the Gay and Lesbian Past (New York: American Library, 1989), ed. Duberman, Martin, Martha Vicinus and George Chauncey. ISBN 0-452-01067-5. * Kozinn, Allan, "Critic's Notebook; Defending Tchaikovsky, With Gravity and With Froth." In The New York Times, 18 July 1992. Retrieved 27 February 2012. * Lockspeiser, Edward, "Tchaikovsky the Man." In Music of Tchaikovsky (New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 1946), ed. Abraham, Gerald. ISBN n/a. OCLC 385829 * Maes, Francis, tr. Arnold J. Pomerans and Erica Pomerans, A History of Russian Music: From Kamarinskaya to Babi Yar (Berkeley, Los Angeles and London: University of California Press, 2002). ISBN 0-520-21815-9. * Mochulsky, Konstantin, tr. Minihan, Michael A., Dostoyevsky: His Life and Work (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1967). Library of Congress Catalog Card No. 65–10833. * Poznansky, Alexander, Tchaikovsky: The Quest for the Inner Man (New York: Schirmer Books, 1991). ISBN 0-02-871885-2. * Poznansky, Alexander, Tchaikovsky Through Others' Eyes. (Bloomington: Indiana Univ. Press, 1999). ISBN 0-253-33545-0. * Ridenour, Robert C., Nationalism, Modernism and Personal Rivalry in Nineteenth-Century Russian Music (Ann Arbor: UMI Research Press, 1981). ISBN 0-8357-1162-5. * Ritzarev, Marina, Tchaikovsky's Pathétique and Russian Culture (Ashgate, 2014). ISBN 9781472424112. * Roberts, David, "Modulation (i)." In The New Grove Encyclopedia of Music and Musicians (London: MacMillan, 1980), 20 vols., ed. Sadie, Stanley. ISBN 0-333-23111-2. * Rubinstein, Anton, tr. Aline Delano, Autobiography of Anton Rubinstein: 1829–1889 (New York: Little, Brown & Co., 1890). Library of Congress Control Number 06004844. * Schonberg, Harold C. Lives of the Great Composers (New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 3rd ed. 1997). ISBN 0-393-03857-2. * Steinberg, Michael, The Concerto (New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998). * Steinberg, Michael, The Symphony (New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1995). * Taruskin, Richard, "Tchaikovsky, Pyotr Il'yich", The New Grove Dictionary of Opera (London and New York: Macmillan, 1992), 4 vols, ed. Sadie, Stanley. ISBN 0-333-48552-1. * Volkov, Solomon, Romanov Riches: Russian Writers and Artists Under the Tsars (New York: Alfred A. Knopf House, 2011), tr. Bouis, Antonina W. ISBN 0-307-27063-7. * Warrack, John, Tchaikovsky Symphonies and Concertos (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1969). Library of Congress Catalog Card No. 78–105437. * Warrack, John, Tchaikovsky (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1973). ISBN 0-684-13558-2. * Wiley, Roland John, "Tchaikovsky, Pyotr Ilyich." In The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, Second Edition (London: Macmillan, 2001), 29 vols., ed. Sadie, Stanley. ISBN 1-56159-239-0. * Wiley, Roland John, The Master Musicians: Tchaikovsky (Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 2009). ISBN 978-0-19-536892-5. * Zhitomirsky, Daniel, "Symphonies." In Russian Symphony: Thoughts About Tchaikovsky (New York: Philosophical Library, 1947). ISBN n/a. External links * Tchaikovsky Research * Tchaikovsky at Favorite Classical Composers * * Love-Letters from Tchaikovsky to his Nephew Bob Davidov * How Did Tchaikovsky Really Die? * Music Analysis. Aspects on sexuality and structure in the later symphonies of Tchaikovsky. * Tchaikovsky cylinder recordings, from the Cylinder Preservation and Digitization Project at the University of California, Santa Barbara Library. * Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky at the Internet Broadway Database * Works by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky at Project Gutenberg * Works by or about Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky at Internet Archive Public domain sheet music * Mutopia Project Tchaikovsky Sheet Music at Mutopia * Free scores by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky at the International Music Score Library Project * 2 Tchaikovsky Arias and Piano works performed live in Brussels *